


The Last Meetup (Story Request)

by SpazzieBunnie



Category: Furry (Fandom)
Genre: Drama, Gen, Sad, finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:21:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26072572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpazzieBunnie/pseuds/SpazzieBunnie
Summary: A short story request about the epic trilogy coming to an end as Merrick and Jake finally get to find Roxy. The question is, who would be the one to get her first? (Merrick belongs to Shadow_Darkclaw who also requested the story!) (Jake also belongs to KingdomOfKitten)





	The Last Meetup (Story Request)

Three years had passed. Three years since the marketplace. Three years since the warehouse. Three years since the failure of getting their target. The duo were separated for the reason that they knew they made a target out of themselves. If they were to cross paths, it would result in a duel that could end one or both of their lives. They have never seen each other since then. Only following the tracks and clues of where Roxy could be. City after city. Town after town. She was never found. To only disappear without a trace. No clue of where the wolf could be.

Until now. In the early morning at a motel close to a beach and even closer to the city, some of the mammals were getting themselves out of their rooms. Either to pack up and head to a hotel near the pier and beach for more fun, or to relax outside and take a breath of fresh air. That was what a male feline was doing. Sitting on one of the chairs on a set of wooden tables that were taking cover from the sun’s heat. The feline laid back against the chair. He looked like an average tourist. Light blue Hawaiin shirt, gray shorts, a havana hat with sunglasses to match. 

Right in his line of sight was a couple of mammals. A hippo family enjoying their breakfast before their trip, A falcon smoking a cigarette while watching cars go by, and a wolf girl wearing a red shirt and black leggings while stomping her paw on the ground in a hurried pace. She looked around every few minutes to check her surroundings. She seemed to be waiting for someone. Frantically checking her phone. 

The feline smiled before changing back into an average look on his face as she was turning around while eating her fish and chips. This was the one. The one he waited years for. That was her and she was so close and so defenseless. Now, it was all coming together. His plan on what his next step should be was halted as he heard someone setting up beside him as they sat down. He never turned and looked beside him, but his sunglasses were helpful for his eyes to dart to the right of him to see the mammal who was sitting down onto the chair.

This figure looked tall. Gray with purple. A wolf wearing a disguise similar to the tabby. Only it was a sandy white fedora with yellow aviators with a green Hawaiin shirt being the only difference. They even were wearing some matching sandals. The cat knew all too well on who this figure was. He looked back at the female wolf who was playing with her pink hair.

“You know Merrick, we look damn ridiculous.” The cat said to the wolf who doesn’t look back at him. 

“Well that store did have a sale. I guess we went to the same place Jake.” Merrick said back to Jake as they just continued to watch her. The target that they have been tracking for years. Both wanted her, but for different goals. Merrick still was wanting to end this weapon that walked on the face of the earth, while Jake still was determined to capture her and bring her to the big mammal that was going to give him millions. 

Jake had with him a can of soda as his way of a wake up drink. The coffee that the motel used was almost the taste of a cheaper brand. It was a foul taste that the cat refused to drink, even if all the sugars and creamers and flavor enhancers could save the cup of joe. He took a sip to taste the powerful sugary liquid onto his taste buds before taking a swallow to feel the cold drink give him a wake up.

Merrick had nothing. He seemed to be energized and ready for whatever was going to happen for this morning. It was scary to see this wolf not even seem tired in the slightest. No sign of a yawn or stretching his arms up. He seemed almost no longer a mammal. An android maybe, but a creature that is not from this world seemed to fit the wolf well.

Jake still kept his look on Roxy. “I’m surprised you haven’t tried to kill me yet.” He took another sip after saying what was obviously on the table.

“I was tempted to go into your room which is number twelve as you were watching that critic talking about nostalgia stuff at around 10:37 pm.” Merrick never blinked and never paused saying it. Jake didn’t feel scared of that threat. For he knew that a ‘but’ was going to come out of it.

“But.” The tabby was too smart. “I came to offer you another chance at fixing your life.”

“Flattered, but I will decline that offer.” Jake didn’t have a second thought. He believed it to be a trap. He couldn’t risk something like this where Merrick could just snap his neck or stab or whatever intention he has.

Merrick took a nod. He understood that the tabby would rather continue this rivalry that could have ended with peace. He would have a sanctuary, and he would be a hero in the end. But Jake was refusing it all. This got the male wolf to question his morality. His purpose of what is making him act and feel that way. He had to understand the core of the mind of Jake.

“What makes you be like this? What keeps you afraid of finding peace? My offer provides you with safety. Why refuse it?”

Jake said nothing. He just kept staring and taking another drink. He was refusing to cooperate at all.

Merrick scratched his own neck. “If I provide information of why my target is Roxy, will that get you to explain your information that I am wanting to know?”

“Why try to understand me?” 

“Because maybe we could have a similar path?”

Jake letted out a small quiet laugh from Merrick’s attempt to sympathize with him. “Trust me. You and I live different lives buddy.”

Merrick started to look slightly to the cat with his arms starting to cross as the arms were on his chest. “Explain.”

Jake knew he wouldn’t stop. Rather than continuing this back and forth argument of sorts, he started to comply. He didn’t want Merrick to scare off Roxy as they both were arguing. He figured that was the plan, to have Jake and him bicker as she runs off but Merrick gets to her first through unknown means. So, he placed his can on the table coaster and put his hand in his pocket. He went along to not seem like a suspicious mammal

Jake went on to explain. On why he refused help or to be around others that much. As he was a kitten, he always lived in the rough streets of a powerful city. He wasn’t a fan of his past. It led to stealing in convenient stores. It led to threatening people who were yelling at him. It led to robbery. As he grew up, he became more quick with his actions, but these actions led him down a path that almost ended his life. He and a gang were set to rob several people’s homes to sell to the market and make big cash. Of course, one of them was wired. The cops came as soon as they went to the first house.

The cat sounded upset just telling that part. The truth was, the gang was family. He learned everything from them. To be tough. To be brave. To make sure to trust no one unless they were family. He grew up under their methods. His moral compass was a mixed bag. He felt no pity in robbing the weak, but he always was ending the lives of rich assholes that spit on the lower class like they were diseased beings. The young teen cat had a choice. Leave his family and live as a new person, or risk getting jailed or even getting shot. He left them to rot in prison.

Of course, some time later, he found the snitch and put so many bullets into their head that it was like nothing but swiss cheese. He was angry. Screaming at the body as he was punching it without end. Crying on the body and ground at the fact that he lost two lives already. A life as an innocent kitten who was abandoned by his parents for being too much of a troublemaker and not living the higher class life, and a life as gang member who fought hard and lived hard to rule the streets and to attack the rich that smoked nothing but fancy cigars and drunk from their expensive wine bottles.

Now he had a new life. A life of a mercenary. He had to accept the one rule he was taught at the young age. To trust nobody. He learned on one mission dealing with trying to kill this lowlife that was scamming others. He teamed up with the same person that hired him to find that scammer. One night, Jake woke up to sound of someone coming closer to him. His eyes opened to see that same hiree brandishing a switchblade as it was up above him and was ready to slam it down at Jake. The tabby was too smart for this line of work. Which is why he quickly pulled his gun out from under the blanket that he slept in and pulled the trigger before he could even react.

One swift headshot, the hiree was killed. It turned out that the mammal that hired him was in fact the scammer himself. He tended to hire bodyguards and mercs and hitmen only to kill them so that way nobody would dare try to hire a hitman after him. It was stupid, but it seemd to get him alive that far. But it still stuck to the cat. It was a lesson to him. Trust no one, or else you’ll wake up with a knife in your neck or a gun shooting your body. All he wanted was a way out of this hellish life he has caved himself. He wanted one more life. A life where fear was gone. No longer did he have to sleep with both eyes opened. No longer did he risk a job that could end him in a cell or in a dumpster. He wanted out. When those big corporation dudes came to him with the offer to find Roxy and bring her back that was worth millions of dollars, he saw that chance. He took it within the second he heard of that.

Million dollars can get you a private place. A private life. It was like a world of your own. You didn’t need to be afraid. You could just have any you wanted for years. So so many years of peace. Jake wanted it, no, he needed it. Even if Roxy was a doomsday weapon that could end or cause wars, he wanted to live in peace. He rather be gone in a blissful fire of a nuke in a place where he felt safe, than to be gone in an alleyway by the hands of some target he was after while being afraid for his life. Removal of fear was something Jake earned to have in his grasp. Not once did he ever feel peace. With turning in Roxy, and getting that money, and using it to live a private life and start one last new world of his own, only then could he feel stress and fear leave him behind. His motivation was not greed as Merrick always thought of, but to seek clarity for a new life. 

The male wolf felt pity towards the cat. Jake was right, he never could relate to him with a past like that. There, Jake started to grab for his can and started to take a drink to soothe his throat. Merrick and Jake still kept watch, with Roxy just tapping her fingernails on the table as she checked her phone again. She looked helpless. She looked as if her worries were starting to take affect on her.

Merrick took a more detailed look at her. He saw her as a tired mess. To Jake, it seemed like she barely brushed this morning and was ready to book it, but to the wolf, he knew something was wrong with Roxy. She had bags under her eyes. Her fur was mangled up and barely brushed well. Her limbs just seemed to be shaking every so often. Something was wrong with this android. He had a gut feeling that she might be close to death any given day. It most likely seemed to be that her chips and data boards were being fried and ruined by lack of technical care and programming. 

“She isn’t going to make it soon.” Merrick points out to Jake. The tabby didn’t question Merrick for he knew that the male wolf was always right.

“So what does it mean? We only got a couple of days left?” Jake took the sip from his can.

“Yeah. Being on the run for so long without being fixed and checked up can cause damage overtime.” Merrick said as he started to stretch his arms up til the sound of cracked tired bones got him to feel less tense.

Jake looked at Merrick with his shades covering his curious eyes. “How do you know so much about her anyway?”

Merrick adjusted himself and got to feel relaxed again in his chair. “Simple. Me and the others that follow the cause to destroy deadly technology were taught all about the mechanical nature of androids, robots, cyborgs. You name it, and I’ll explain it.”

Jake took a nod to it. “Of course, but I think you know what I mean.” One last sip, and Jake said out what obviously needed to be said. “You seem to know her. Like, on a personal level. Before I blacked out from my shock gun three years ago, she said your name. So I know that you know her.”

Merrick started to stay silent. He didn’t want to talk about it. He was refusing to speak up. Only his breathing could be heard out of him. Jake didn’t want to push any further for he felt like it had to be at the pace Merrick wanted, or else the feline would be probably attacked by him. 

Merrick wanted to escape that conversation, but how could he? He can’t stall the question for long nor should he just stay silent in general. The wolf wanted to speak up, but he felt like if he did, Jake could somehow use it against him. Never trust an enemy, even if their intentions were more good than yours. The wolf has no choice in this manner though. He was a mammal of his word. Since he knew of Jake’s reasoning of wanting to capture Roxy, he figured to tell the cat why he was determined to end the android’s life. 

Merrick came clean, and told the truth. “Yes. I do know her.”

Jake finished his can and sat it on the table. He was now on watch point as Merrick looked at him. “She backstabbed you? Hurted your heart? Ruined you?”

“No. She didn’t hurt me. It’s more crazier than that.” Merrick began to explain his side of reasoning to end Roxy. Though firstly, he had to know if Jake could understand something that was the key point to what he was going to tell him. “You remember the missing citizens investigations in NightCyber City around seven years ago?”

“Yeah. I heard about that on the news. Everyone was going into curfews and shit because of that.”

“She was one of them.” Merrick said with his tone sounding depressed.

He now started to give the side to his story. The fact was, she was taken from him. She was someone that he would call a best friend. When she was gone and never heard of, he knew she was one of those missing people. She lived the lifestyle of partying which sadly had cost her to be missing and to be gone without a trace. Merrick during his time of her being gone was still part of that secretive group that was growing bigger as technology was showing to become more and more dangerous and sooner or later was going to rule all of earth with a titanium fist.

A month before his encounter with Jake, he and other members of the group that sought to seek peace were given targets of robots and machines to destroy. Merrick accepted whatever job he was going to do. Sneak into a military lab? Break into a scientist’s house? He was willing to sacrifice himself to destroy the harsh advancing tech. But when he got his list of which one to take down first, he felt like the world was toying with him. Out of all the robots he was destined to eliminate, it was the android of a female he thought to have been out of his life. That same wolf. Roxy. He knew for a fact that this was her.

When he went into digging for information thanks to the vast knowledge the computer’s held and getting information out of a few workers he kidnapped and beaten for information, he got his answer. Roxy was kidnapped along with others to perfect an experimental process in which the body and machines could co-exist in the same mind. The brain being full of knowledge with less coding required. The coding would be made to give the android side of the mammal more power and more adapting to the world. At first it was going to be used for secret service for the president. Though the demand was much greater than that. Because of how they replaced all but the organs of the brain of the mammals and their hearts being wrapped in nanotech and titanium like their bones, they seemed like a soldier. A powerful tool for ending wars. So they were used as weapons.

Normally the androids would have control of their host’s bodies. But one day, Roxy had somehow awakened from her state of paralysis and started to make her and the android counterpart become self aware. The mammality part of Roxy was greater than the machine as she started to escape and hide and jump into city after city. When Merrick understood all of this, he knew what he had to do. He had to find her and put an end to her. Not just because it was his job, but he knew she was suffering. She wanted to run, but the chips in her brain were trying to get her to fight the urge to escape. Roxy was in a constant struggle between her life and the android’s life. He couldn’t handle knowing that every day she would be suffering. The more she fought the android in her, the more the chips and hardware would fry up and break until all the chips were burned out and thus, causing her brain and heart to fail, killing her horribly.

Merrick finished with a sigh as he rubbed his head with his hand in an attempt to keep him calm. He refused to cry anymore. All the tears were drained away many years ago for her, with his tears coming back when he came to the sudden realization he would kill his only friend to spare her from the one thing she feared of becoming. A robot of any sort. Jake now understood Merrick’s objective. It wasn’t just a mission. He wanted to free her. A grizzly noble act that no one could ever want in their lives.

The two mammals just sat in silence now. Both of them started to realize that they had one major thing they shared. They both wanted Roxy, with Jake wanting to bring her back in exchange for money, and Merrick wanted to put her down to free his friend. They had a reason to do this. Both were good intentions with pure heart being their guide to continue with finding her. But still one thing remained. Who would be the one to get to Roxy first? Would Jake let Merrick do his job or vice versa? None of them said a word. They only understood their predicament.

Roxy started to couch. From the sight it looked as if she was starting to cough up blood and blackish substance on her hand. She clearly was not doing well. Merrick seemed to be correct with his statement. She was dying. She wasn’t looking like she could last another day like this. She looked healthy, but it was only her shell that made her look averagely fit. The female wolf had a napkin with her and wiped the metal and oil smelling liquid off. 

As she was looking around her surroundings as per usual when she finally got to notice them two. She stared at the two tourists looking like they are being chill and relaxed. Roxy wasn’t a moron. She knew exactly who they were. Normally she would make a break for it. Maybe start a fight. But she knew that she couldn’t get far. Her pickup driver probably swindled her out of her money, so she was stuck with the two that were after her as she was hacking up her life away with each cough. She fought many bounty hunters, but each time she was weaker and felt like she could barely move like right now. 

She knew what they wanted, and two sides of her were fighting. The mammal side wanted the suffering to be halted permanently, and the android side wanted it to be fixed so it can prolong it’s lifespan. Both of her sides were fighting in her possibly gray brain that was wanting either option. She moved her pointer finger and curled it backward to indicate the ‘come here’ gesture. The two mammals knew their cover was blown, and decided to follow along with it.

They got up and started to walk over to her as they bypassed the other patrons. They go to the empty two chairs that were in front of her and begin to sit down. They got comfortable while she put her arms on the table and crossed them. She looked at the two with a soft grin starting to form.

“You look like fucking idiots you know that?” Roxy said to crack a joke despite sounding and feeling tired than yesterday.

“Figured you say that.” Merrick says with her coughing up into her napkin. “You don’t have long to live, you know.”

“Noooo, I thought it was my allergies.” Roxy still was stubborn throughout the years. Merrick was sort of impressed to see her humor not leaving her side.

She looked at the two mammals that were going to affect her life. Both ends were a good and bad take, but there was only two choices now as she refused to let her body hurt more and die slowly and even more painfully. All that mattered, was who was going to end her run? The wolf that she remembered well that wants to kill her, or the cat that was looking for money out of her capture.

It was hard for her to let her true self speak out, for her body was sharing two minds. A soulless machine and a mammal with emotions. She looked back and forth at Merrick and Jake. “You know...maybe I should give up at this point.”

“You should. You’ll end up as a metal husk in some random place where you could be found many years later.” Jake told the truth. If she kept running, she would suffer more and end becoming alone as her chips break and burn out.

Roxy sighed with the truth on her plate. She couldn’t run. She couldn’t fight. She couldn’t do anything. Only acceptance was what she could do. She rubbed her head and put her fingers through her hair with her one hand. Stuck with the thought that these two were her only way out. She looked up at them.

“Ok...I will give up. The real question is-” She removed her hand from her head and looked at them dead in the eyes. “Who will be the one to do it?” She looked at Merrick. “Will you kill me?” Then turned to Jake. “Or will you capture me?”

That was the toughest choice ever given to any mammal. The two have their target right in front of them. They have good and bad karma filled reasonings. All that was left was would they let the other do what they came here to do? Would they fight again? Would Jake and Merrick end up badly beaten or dead on the ground by their needs of wanting to fulfill their deepest wants in life?

Jake and Merrick looked back at each other. They felt it. That once this happens, the one who gets to do it will be accomplished, and the other will struggle throughout the rest of their life. The tabby leaned forward to press his hands and wrist on the table. He seemed to be the one making the call.

“I’d normally fight for my prize. First come, first server sort of deal.” Jake's words were making Roxy look at him with a look of curiosity and wondering where this would go. “I’d fight Merrick all the way to achieve peace...but-” Now it was Merrick who started to look at him with the same facial emotion like Roxy’s. “I want him to not suffer knowing he would lose his chance of saving his friend.”

He turned back to Merrick and started to lean his back against the chair. He looked at the male wolf and shook his head ‘yes’ as he letted Merrick move forward with his arms crossed on the table like the female wolf as Roxy’s eyes now fixed onto the wolf she knew closely. 

“You know that I don’t want to do this, but I don’t want your fear to become a reality anymore.” Merrick putted his one arm away and into his pocket while the other reached over to Roxy’s.

“I can’t believe you still want to help me, even though I am something you despise. Are you killing me because you want to save me? Or do you want to kill me for me being a robotic being?” Roxy felt her one arm slowly reach over to him.

“The former. You know I care about you more than anything. I want to be the one to put you at peace. Not some assassin and not some drug psycho. I want to be the one to release your pain” He started to feel his hand being held by her own. He never looked away from her. “You know I care about you, if I didn’t, I would have ended you already with no remorse.”

Roxy smiled. Her smile grew as she felt his soft hand squeeze gently around her. She felt those stones of his on his hand as she rubbed her thumb on it. “Thank you Merrick.”

After she said her piece of mind, she saw his arm coming back but this time with a small orange cylinder in his grip. She still was no fool, she knew what was in that strange syringe. 

“NanoVirus. The nanomachines that are full of malware that would be enough to shut down an android.” She said without even blinking. She wasn’t flinching either as she saw he was close to stabbing her arm with it.

“Yes.” Merrick said honestly. “This will kill you, but you won’t feel the pain. You’ll die with ease and without suffering. It’s known as the quiet robot killer for a reason.”

She chuckled at him as he was close to injecting her. “I can’t thank you enough for this. You don’t know how much it means to feel relief for the first time. Finally. I am free from this damned machine.”

Merrick felt happy. Of course he felt terrible that he would be killing his friend, but if he letted her live then her nightmare would continue on end and make her suffer in the process. He felt his spirits lifted knowing he could finally put her at rest. No more fears. No more running. No more letting AI take control. She was going to be free. 

He injected the cylinder into her arm and quickly the liquid was going into her android body. “Goodbye Roxy. I’m sorry this happened to you and that I wasn’t there to save you.”

Roxy letted her grip go on Merrick’s hand as she started to cross her arms again. She could feel the virus starting to take over. Her eyes flashing as a sigh that it was already in the works to overload her chips and hardware and every single piece of board. All she could do was muster a smile. “You did good Merrick...y..you did...good...I forgive..you...I always did forgive you...always.” 

She started to lay her head on her arms. She was accepting the choice she made, and she couldn’t help but smile and leave tears dripping onto the table and arms. Merrick and Jake started to get up and say their quiet goodbyes to Roxy as they knew if she died right in front of them, they could get into serious trouble. They left before anyone took notice.

Roxy was finally gone. Merrick couldn’t believe it. He fulfilled his duty. He honored his dying friend's last wish. He couldn’t feel more proud of himself than anyone else in the world. The two walked out onto the sidewalk. Walking down and far away from the motel to leave their past behind and let the future guide them.

Merrick looked over to Jake. He didn’t seem phased. Was he angry? Was he feeling guilt? No look could be registered on the tabby. He just seemed like nothing. A walking nobody. Merrick started to speak up with Jake’s ear twitching to give the indication that he still had emotions.

“Jake...thank you.” Merrick was sincere. He couldn't get the cat enough for helping him, even if their past was off a shaky start.

Jake rubbed his nose. “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.” 

Merrick was silent. His hands into his pockets while still clutching onto the cylinder object in his one hand. He just felt like life was starting to become more fair for him. More understanding of him.

The tabby and wolf stopped at a stoplight that was red for them as cars drove by. “I couldn’t do it.”

Merrick looked at the tabby after he said that. “Do what?”

“I couldn’t be this asshole that takes away somebody who's more important to somebody else.” Jake fixed up his shirt as he kept going. “If I took her and got my money, I may have gotten peace...but it meant you wouldn’t save her. I couldn’t do that to you.” 

Merrick felt a smile starting to appear on his face. He couldn’t believe that underneath that tough cat was a soft kitten who knew morals. “You know, I still am offering you to join our cause. You earned it for helping a follower. You can get paid and of course be in a quiet place that nobody but us knows.”

“Tempting. But I still will turn down the offer.” Jake knew Merrick meant well. He still wanted peace to be on his side as he was done with the life hunting and capturing and killing. He just wanted a quiet place.

Merrick understood well. “Well...I guess this is goodbye then.”

“Yeah...good luck to your future Merrick.”

“The same can be said with you my pal….goodbye.”

The lights turn green as Merrick watched the cars stop and saw it was his time to go. He walked forward as Jake started to turn away to follow the rest of the sidewalk. They never looked back to see where they were going. They knew that one day they would cross paths again. Not in the following months, but maybe in years they will find themselves going to help each other and this time no more fighting.

They both wished them good luck on whatever the future holds for them. They were ready for life to give them something in return. They were glad that things were going right for once.


End file.
